KEI, the rescue dog who fought bravely to protect her new family against home invaders, is back on the screen.
Many South Africans remember the television advert broadcast earlier this year by online pet insurance company, dotsure.co.za, celebrating the heroic pet named Kei, who was shot by an intruder while defending her family during a home break-in.
The advert tells a touching and emotional story of bravery, resilience, love and hope. But it also upset some people who felt it was too harrowing.
After receiving two complaints, the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) Directorate ruled that the story could be told without traumatic detail and re-enactment.
It said that the use of triggering sound effects and traumatic detail unjustifiably played on the fear that most South Africans had about safety and their pets.
Dotsure disagreed with the outcome, especially in view of the outpouring of support for the advert and positive feedback from the public.
Even after the ARB earlier this year deemed the advertisement using Kei’s story to be “problematic”, dotsure was determined to tell the story.
“Kei’s story is authentic, heart-warming and it deserves to be told,” Glen Anderson, Managing Executive, at dotsure said.
And so Kei is back on television screens across the country, in a new version of the dotsure.co.za advert.
“Since the launch of the ad, we’ve had an outpouring of support and positive feedback from the public. It’s a beautiful, hopeful, and absolutely authentic story about a truly heroic pet, Anderson at the time said.
The advert is based on true events - of Kei, a Malinois cross, helping to save the lives of the Lamont family in Benoni family who had taken him in.
The dog who had been sleeping on the Lamont’s eldest daughter’s bed in 2021, attacked an intruder when she sensed danger. Even after she was shot in the face, Kei followed a second perpetrator. Despite the horrific injuries she suffered, after a long period of medical care, Kei made a full recovery.
Kei chased the intruder down the stairs and got shot in the face. The bullet entered the side of her nose, shattered two top molars, severely injured her tongue and broke her jaw, the Boksburg SPCA at the time posted on Facebook
Despite her injuries, Kei tried to alert a neighbour, CCTV footage showed. As she couldn’t bark because one of the bullets had shattered her jaw, she ran down to the lake looking for help.
The Benoni SPCA posted after the incident : “In 2020, the Lamont family drove through to the Boksburg SPCA to meet a young crossed Malinois dog named Kei. It was love at first sight. Little did they know that, within a year, this dog was going to save their lives”.
Anderson said Dotsure was determined to continue telling Kei’s story and therefore decide to produce a revised version of the original version: “This heroic story of a pet’s love, hope, determination, courage, and healing together with support from its family and insurer is an inspiring example to us all to fight for what we have and to never give up.”
Pretoria News